US-Mexican borderlands

The always worthwhile George Friedman has a short article on the US-Mexico borderlands issue in Stratfor.

Three fault lines emerged in United States on the topic [of Mexican immigration]. One was between the business classes, which benefited directly from the flow of immigrants and could shift the cost of immigration to other social sectors, and those who did not enjoy those benefits. The second lay between the federal government, which saw the costs as trivial, and the states, which saw them as intensifying over time. And third, there were tensions between Mexican-American citizens and other American citizens over the question of illegal migrants. This inherently divisive, potentially explosive mix intensified as the process continued.

Migration to the United States is a normal process. Migration into the borderlands from Mexico is not. The land was seized from Mexico by force, territory now experiencing a massive national movement - legal and illegal - changing the cultural character of the region. It should come as no surprise that this is destabilizing the region, as instability naturally flows from such forces.

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